Bishop Hill A puppet show?
Feb 12, 2015 Energy: gas Richard Dixon of Friends of the Earth is heavily referenced in this article from Sputnik News, poo-poohing the idea that INEOS are serious about closing Grangemouth if shale gas development in the UK doesn't go ahead.
The arguments are typically Dixonian, and I don't intend to spend any time on them, but I was interested in Sputnik itself, an organisation I'd never come across. Its Wikipedia page says it "replaces the RIA Novosti news agency and the Voice of Russia international radio broadcaster". It also quotes a Russian human rights activist as saying it is "a tool of Russian state propaganda distribution abroad".
Which is interesting when one recalls the words of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former secretary general of NATO, who said that Russia was working with environmental groups to maintain Western Europe's energy dependence.
Reader Comments (22)
And there was me thinking we were conspiracy theorists!
This sort of destabilisation of the West was food and drink to the Soviet Union and we all knew it. Why should we ever have assumed that the new Imperial Russia was likely to behave any differently?
Only the end has changed (and I'm not dead sure about that); the means stay the same.
Interesting. The near paradigm of 1930's appeasement and fifth columns continues. From Snowden to INEOS the Guardian left is guiding us towards a very tricky situation - weak leaders, weak military and energy security. I have always seen the Russian threat as inconsequential until recently, but there is a real threat of a new cold war upon us. Having read the Lamb paper last night, the case of not learning from the past is an evident danger.
If there's one thing that history has shown it is that whatever comes out of the lips of a FoE spokesman is the opposite of the truth. FoE could be renamed UIoP (Useful Idiots of Putin).
Unless you've forgotten there was a Chinese citizen on the notorious 28gate committee and UEA got huge grants from China. We've also known that green groups were being funded by Russia and now we know that Dixon is working hand in glove as an agent of Russian State propaganda.
Oh I don't know, I remember seeing Monckton on Russia Today (RT), stupidly trying to tell us that Russia had more democracy than the EU. As long as the message is anti-West then the Russian propaganda machine laps it up.
Last time I watched RT the 3 headline items were:
1. Terrorists in Iraq/Syria found to be using weapons supplied by USA.
2. Rioters in USA protesting against police brutality.
3. Humanitarian aid convoy from Russia finally allowed to enter Ukraine.
I've even seen Frankie Boyle, the comedian, being asked his opinion on financial irregularities at UK banks on the Max Kieser show.
Radio4 Analysis prog about Maskirovka (masquerade) a standard traditional Russian warfare technique better translated as "absolute lying cheating bastard technique"
- The experts knew what the Russians were doing. So why is our infotainment news media so clueless about such things ? (Maybe Putin has a huge database of them/us looking at porn or something)
(- Troops without uniforms is a Russian standard, at the Press conference Putin just lied thru his teeth.
- The white van convoy was just a decoy for our press to get excited about, while masses of Russian military went thru other borders
- Built a fake narrative about Ukrainian Nazis
- They made up a complete fake TV report about a 3 year old being boy crucified by Ukrainian Nazis for speaking Russian. )
BTW I heard on Today prog biz "A correction to what Prof Steven Thomas said, EDF say they have no plan to cancel the new nuclear plant" ..Steve Thomas is the Greenpeace prof !
The word "watermelon" would appear a highly accurate description of Richard Dixon and his fellow travellers at FoE, WWF, Greenp***.
The comparison with CND, both in its original Aldermaston and subsequent Greenham Common incarnations, is revealing: the genuinely well intentioned unable to see that they are being used as dupes, unaware of the real nature of Soviet Union, certain that the West alone bore the blame for the Cold War. That said, it is also true that by the time that the Women's Peace Camp was established, the genuine fruit-cakes were emerging, their heirs, even more virulently anti-Western, still unfortunately very much with us today.
Nazi Germany was a global economic powerhouse with rising living standards (for gentiles). It was at the end of the greatest period of scientific progress for centuries - possibly ever - and Germany was the home of that revolution.
1930s Germany had many faults but the only one it feared was weakness - so they weren't weak.
Russia today is a backwards society.
Surpassed by China in terms of technology and conventional arms. Held in contempt by the West for its economic failings. The only software achievement it has ever made was Tetris - Russia is in decline.
Not the same at all. Bluff and Bluster.
Richard Dixon - a Putin Pawn?
Is there (or has there ever been) any Russian broadcasting organisation which is not "a tool of Russian state propaganda distribution abroad"?
Richard Dixon needs to understand, he and his organisation are not Russia's; they are our FOE. (oh...)
Trefjon has this: "...there is a real threat of a new cold war upon us" - except that this time round it will be literally cold as well as figuratively.
"The only software achievement it [Russia] has ever made was Tetris"
Really harsh! They are the worlds leaders in decrypting licensed Western software and installing trojan horses on your computer that encrypt your files then extort money from you in order to decrypt them. I use Russian-Ukrainian encryption software myself - 'set a thief to catch a thief' I say. Moreover Kompass-3D is as good as any western CAD software.
"Surpassed by China in terms of technology and conventional arms"
You're having a laugh here! Russia is the second largest conventional arms exporter after the United States. Russian missiles are indisputably the best in the world - unfortunately. China is buying in nuclear power technology but Russia is selling it.
"Held in contempt by the West for its economic failings."
Be fair! I can't really see that they are so much different from Western economic failings. How smart is it to base your economic growth exclusively on rising house prices like UK/US/Spain/Ireland etc? Sure the Russian economy depends on home-brew oil and gas but the US economy has only been saved from a ridiculously massive debt burden (more dollars owed than even exist) by home-brew oil and gas. Up till then a US debt default was an absolute certainty and is even now still likely. Britain is facing a trillion+ debt that it just keeps kicking down the road because 'borrowing is so cheap'.
Moreover Russia/Georgia already has the answer to antibiotic resistance in the form of phages. Which used to be re-assuring but now is frankly worrying. Nobody in the West is even close to solving this huge problem.
The only real issue with Russia is Putin! Without him in charge they'd be valued friends and trading partners.
In the light of the 2013 year's kerfuffle at Grangemouth I'd be wary of calling PetroIneos' bluff
The plant was in financial crisis 18 months ago, I suspect without the cheap feedstocks currently available it would be still be just about at break even. Look out for more unrest if crude prices start going up again.
Here's how I think it will play out:
Petrochina (50% of PetroIneos) has no interest whatsoever in UK fuel security or 1700 jobs on the other side of the world. They can see the possibility of cheap local feedstock from which they can profit. They are not permitted access to them for no good reason that they can see. They can't lose either they get access or they shed an asset with marginal value. The plant is marginally profitable. It might even be worth more to them stripped down. and anything worth reusing, put on barges and shipped to Africa where they have huge investments to recoup. In May, if the greens get any traction, it is highly likely the petrochemical industry will be the target of more punitive taxation. That, or the recovery in the price of the feedstocks, will be the trigger to squeeze the unions more. Say what they might the unions were beaten down in 2013. They won't be beaten down The best outcome is the plant will be mothballed. The supply chain will be broken and the losers will be the customers. We will end up importing more end products at a higher cost. If and when local feedstock comes on line and it is cost effective some capacity will restored but nothing like the current level.
The left will blame the government/management the, the right will blame the unions and the green NGOs will congratulate themselves that they were right all along: the only sustainable future is from renewables. The people will be consigned to sitting in the dark until the wind blows. The propaganda will tell them it is all in a good cause and they will be grateful for being saved from frying.
Pretty bleak but I can't see the power of the green pressure groups being broken any time soon.
MCourtney (Feb 12, 2015 at 9:44 AM), Russia is still very well armed and I don't see how your questionable assertion about China's capability affects that.
On the subject of maskirovka if you want a detailed lesson in how to do it, read the first few chapters of Clancy's Red Storm Rising. (In fact read the whole book. Given Clancy's propensity for detailed military research there might be some lessons in there; apart from which it's a good read.) The word he uses is 'trickery' The object: to distract NATO from the real reason for an invasion of western Europe which in itself is only a diversion with the real target being the Middle-East oilfields.
PS JamesG: I do agree with the last sentence in your 10:38 post. So what happens now, I wonder, that Putin appears to have taken on board the need to pour some cold water on his satraps in East Ukraine? And is there any chance that he will not encourage the thugs just across the border in other countries to chance their arm? It doesn't seem to have occurred to him/them that willy-waving is a dangerous occupation.
Mike Jackson, a fellow Clancy fan! I re-read Rainbow Six now and again as it shows how far environmentalists are prepared to go and what happens to them (hopefully).
The comments under the NATO article in the Telegraph are "interesting". The anti frackers just know, you see.
Paul Driessen has another excellent guest post up at WUWT. It is about the remarkable wealth of eco-campaigners engaged in vilifying scientists and others critical of their views and actions, and includes this paragraph on their Russian funding:
"My enemy's enemy is my friend" is a very simple principle, that has a habit of leading to very complicated, unforeseen consequences, that are far more damaging and expensive, than the original perceived threat.
The Americans and Russians have been playing the game since 1945, but the Russians, freed from the tiresome inconvenience of elections, have been better at taking a longer term view.
Well he would say that, would't he? The green machine would dearly love to close Grangemouth. Abolishing fossil fuels is their current raison d'être.
michael hart
+1!
He knows there is little to no chance that INEOS are bluffing. The aim is the closure of Grangemouth.
I have commented a couple of times on this blog that I noticed on my visits to Russia recently that Russian news and Russia Today seem to give undue prominence to anti-fracking demos in UK & EU and the like. Even more than the BBC before someone pipes up and splutters.
Otherwise they're quite pro-"Fossil Fuels" except when being anti- gives them a stick to beat The West with for a while.